This Never Happened

It seems so simple, so pure. But behind the green grass and iconic heroes, professional baseball has always been driven by greed, ambition, a thirst for fame, a lust for power, and a ceaseless conflict of motives that go far beyond winning and losing. Peel back the veneer with The Deadball Files.

This critically acclaimed series features present-day mysteries and legal dramas grounded in events and personalities from the early days of baseball.

The series opens with a genuine mystery. History tells us that baseball legends Christy Mathewson and Ty Cobb volunteered as Captains in the World War I Chemical Warfare Service (CWS). After the 1918 baseball season ended, both shipped out for France where they were exposed to poison gas during a training exercise. Mathewson got the worst of it and died in 1925 of tuberculosis brought on by his exposure.

History has it wrong.

According to recently discovered military records, Cobb, Mathewson, and other future Hall of Famers were together in June 1918, training on chemical weapons as part of a "show" unit - a propaganda unit designed to attract young men into the CWS. But the unit disbanded early, and news accounts, even in the local press, make no mention of it. 

A propaganda unit, but no propaganda? A recruiting tool, but no recruiting?

Something happened that was not in the script, something that has been the subject of an elaborate coverup for more than a century. But what?

Discover the history as you unravel the mystery.